Pink Floyd’s “Animals” is, in my opinion, one of their best works. Based on a retelling of George Orwell’s 1945 novel “Animal Farm,” the 41-minute album manages to convey complex messages regarding society, class and humanity in just three main tracks (five if you count the intro and outro “Pigs on the Wing 1 & 2”). With sounds spanning from droning guitars, a synth-heavy interlude and stadium rock outro of “Dogs” to the bluesy Wurlitzer intro to “Sheep” as well as driving basslines, the album takes listeners on a journey across various musical dialects.
All of this is expertly executed by Pink Floyd, which was, at this point in 1977, made up of David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Nick Mason, though Wright would be fired from the band two years later due to tensions created during the album’s recording. The album also came at a pivotal moment in Pink Floyd’s discography, sandwiched between two of their best-received albums, “Wish You Were Here” and “The Wall.”
The album’s first true track, “Dogs,” was originally conceived for “Wish You Were Here,” known at the time as “You’ve Got To Be Crazy,” although I feel that the track is a much better fit for the themes expressed throughout “Animals.” The song is dominated at first by layered acoustic guitar, which provides the backbone of the more than 17-minute song. It’s not until 38 seconds in that David Gilmour’s vocals enter the mix, with an exasperated tone and the lyrics “You’ve got to be crazy.”
The song examines human nature through the lens of a cutthroat business person, who is at first able to quickly rise through the ranks, not caring much about the hurt and pain caused along the way. In the end, this character is left unhappy and unfulfilled, or to quote the song “Just another sad old man, all alone and dying of cancer.”
In a musical and lyrical shift, the acoustic guitars shift their chords and the sound of barking dogs can be heard in the background. A roaring guitar solo from Gilmour enters before being overtaken by lyrics depicting the fall of this businessman who is left crippled by his past actions. This middle section ends with the biting lines “And it’s too late to lose the weight you used to need to throw around, so have a good drown, as you go down, all alone, dragged down by the stone.”
Finally, the song closes with a massive guitar solo and one final musical shift, introducing a new chord progression along with a lyrical motif of “who was.” Its final lines tell of the empty and unfulfilled life of its character, who, in the end, lived without the love of his family and as just another disposable cog in an uncaring machine.
The next track off the album, “Pigs (Three Different Ones)” is arguably the most applicable to a modern complex and, as the title suggests, addresses three different “pigs” across its verses. The first pig is described as a greedy businessman, shrill and uncaring, although outwardly appearing as the opposite. The second verse addresses Margaret Thatcher, who at the time was the leader of the opposition in the British Parliament. Finally, Mary Whitehouse, who was at the time a noted “morality campaigner” is called out. Across all three verses, jabs are made at the socialites of polite society, with lines like “You’re nearly a laugh, but you’re really a cry” making a repeat appearance in the track.
Musically, the song is held down by a driving drum beat from Nick Mason and a rather simple two-chord progression. Multiple guitar solos punctuate the song, along with the occasional interjection of synth and organ. Notably, the song is bisected by an interlude section in which the sound of pigs can be heard in the background and a talkbox is used to emulate the squeals of pigs for this particular guitar solo.
The final of the three main tracks on “Animals,” “Sheep” opens with the sounds of a quaint farm and a bluesy Wurlitzer solo. The pounding one-note bassline that features throughout the track slowly fades in, before a switch to double time, and the entrance of vocals with the line “Harmlessly passing your time in the grassland away, only dimly aware of a certain unease in the air.”
The song is primarily a critique of the not-so-helpless masses, who choose to ignore their constant abuse by the “dogs” or upper classes of society. The lyrics repeatedly rage against the inaction of the “sheep” and question their motivations behind obedience.
Eventually, the song enters an interlude section, with the band switching back into half-time and all members of the band playing the occasional fill and riff, before an obscured voice enters, recanting the process by which the “sheep” are slaughtered by the “dogs.” This is all until the “sheep” decide to rise up against their oppressors, with the line “wave upon wave of demented avengers march cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream.” With this line, the oppressed of society are made to be triumphant in their revolution.
The album is bookended by two short tracks previously mentioned, “Pigs on the Wing 1 & 2.” These two tracks stand in contrast to the three main songs as a love song directed to Roger Waters’ new wife and was primarily included in the album to provide it with some sense of emotional variance, given the rage that punctuates the rest of the album. While there is nothing inherently wrong with the two songs, nothing in particular stands out, and I consider them to be the weakest on the album.